The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c25.37

v3.c25.37

On Qutb-ud-dīn's death the great officers of state raised to the throne his uncle Dāūd, but this prince immediately displayed such depravity and proceeded to fill the places of those who had enthroned him with favourites so unworthy that he was deposed after a reign of no more than twenty-seven days, and his younger brother Abu-'l-Fath Mahmūd was raised to the throne on May 25. Sultān Mahmūd, a mere youth, was at once involved in the meshes of a conspiracy to raise his brother Hasan Khān to the throne. The courtiers who entertained this design approached him and informed him that the minister, 'Imād-ul-Mulk Sha'bān, was conspiring to depose him and to place on the throne Mahmūd's son, Shihāb-ud-dīn, an infant in whose name he would be able to govern the whole country as regent. Mahmūd, new to political intrigue, believed them, and permitted them to arrest the minister and imprison him over one of the gates of the palace. During the night Malik 'Abdullāh, the superintendent of the elephant stables, who had access to the young king, informed him privately of the real state of affairs, and warned him that his throne was in danger. Mahmūd consulted his mother and a few of his immediate attendants, and at once decided on a course of action. Going in person to the Tarpūliya gate, where the minister was confined, he easily gained admission, for the outer precincts of the gate were held by 500 of his own guards, whom he had lent for the purpose, but he found more difficulty in removing the scruples of the minister’s gaolers, who were the creatures of the conspirators. By stamping his foot and demanding in a loud and angry tone the immediate surrender of the traitor that he might suffer instant death he succeeded both in overawing the gaolers by a display of the divinity that doth hedge a king, and in beguiling them into the belief that compliance with his commands would accomplish their master’s design, but as soon as their prisoner was in the king’s power they perceived their error. He begged his minister to excuse the mistake which he had made, and to resume his post. The conspirators, supported by their troops, assembled in the morning at the Tarpūliya gate in the expectation of removing their enemy by a summary execution, but to their dismay found the king holding an audience with his minister, who was standing in his accustomed position behind the throne. Trusting to numbers, they attempted to assume control of the situation, but were deserted by many of their troops and by the city mob, who hesitated openly to take up arms against the king. They fled, and some gained secure places of refuge, but others were captured and publicly executed. Among the latter was one who had attempted to flee, but was too corpulent to use the necessary expedition, and was discovered lurking in his hiding place. Before him lay the obvious fate of being trampled to death by an elephant, and the populace was regaled with the unctuous spectacle.